Andrew t



(NO Mod A.T.THAYER.

PRINTERS FURNITURE. No. 455,070. Patented Jun'e 30,1891,

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ANDREIV T. THAYER, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

PRINTERS FURNITURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 455,070, dated June 30,1891. Application filed January 12, 1889. Serial No. 296,146. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it mag concern Be it known that I, ANDREW T. THAYER, of

the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Printers Furniture; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

This invention comprises an improvement in that part of the printers artwhich relates to securing the form in the chase, and its ob joct is toprovide for a more secure support and retention of the form in placethan is afforded by the furniture, so called, heretofore in use, andalso to provide fora material saving of time and labor in the operationof securing the form in the chase.

My invention comprises the combination, with the chase, of thehereinafter-described expansible piece of furniture, whereby the chaseitself may be used with a wider range as regards size of forms than isfeasible with the ordinary chase used with the ordinary furniture; andwhereby said obj ectis secured with less expense and greater convenienceof manipulation than has heretofore been accomplished by devicesintended to effect similar results.

Figure l is a plan view of an apparatus embracing my said invention.Figs. 2 and 3 are plan views; and Fig. 4a vertical sectional viewfurther illustrating my said invention.

A is the chase, which may be of the usual or any ordinary construction.

B is the form, which may also be of any ap-' propriate or ordinary kind,and which, of course, has at its ends or sides, in other words, itscircumference, the usual reglets a.

C is a piece of expansible furniture interposed between the form and thechase, as represented in Fig. 1, it being, of course, under stood thatthe form is placed within the chase and in substantially the ordinaryrelation thereto.

The expansible furniture 0 is composed of side pieces a and end pieces2), arranged in such relation to each other that the transverse andlongitudinal diameters of the device may be increased or diminished bymoving the said side pieces and end pieces farther from or nearer towardthe center of the device.

The construction may be that representedin Fig. 2, in which tenons a onone of the parts passes into sockets b in the adjacent part, so that theparts may be moved with reference to each other. In order to keep theparts together pins f are passed from one side to the other of thesocket through slots 9 in the tenon of the contiguous end of theadjacent part, thereby permitting the parts to be moved with referenceto each other and expanded or contracted to increase or diminish thecircumference of the'furniture.

As the equivalent of the construction just described, the corners of thefurniture may be made slotted or non-expansible, but with the sidepiecesa and end pieces I) expansibly jointed at some part along theirrespective lengths. Such a joint is illustrated in Fig. 4,

in which a tenon a on one section of the side or end piece, as the casemay be, fits into a corresponding socket b in the contiguous end of theother section on the same side piece or end piece, as the case may be,with a pin f, passing through the socketed end and through a suitableslot in the tenon of the tenoned end. By this construction the availablelength of the side piece, and also the end pieces, may be increased ordiminished, thereby increasing or diminishing the circumferential sizeof the furniture 0. This piece of furniture 0 is placed within the chaseA and around the form B, and being expansible, as described, its outeror circumferential surfaces are brought firm and sung against the innersurface or circumference of the chase. Pieces f of ordinary furnitureand ordinary quoins g are then placed between the form and theexpansible piece of furniture 0, as represented in Fig. 1, and the formis then keyed up firmly against the inner surface or circumference ofthe expansible furniture 0 in substantially the same manner as with theordinary apparatus.

By the use of the expansible piece of furniture C a much more firm andsecure bearing, support, and retention of the form in place is obtainedthan if the ordinary quoins and furniture f were alone .employed topress the form through the entire. space between the form and the chase.Furthermore, inasmuch as the number of small piecesf,&c., of theordinary furniture is greatly diminished, the

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handling of the single device, the expansible furniture 0 beingsubstituted for the handling of aconsiderable number of small pieces,there is a great deal of time saved in the adjustment of the furniture,and also a corresponding reduction in the degree of continuous careinvolved in securing the form in place and position within the chase.

I am aware that a printers chase has been heretofore proposed, in whichtwo series of bars at right angles to each other are provided uponscrews working in fixed bearings provided to the chase, with the objectof providing a variable central space in which the form may be placedand embraced. Such appara tus, however, is expensive, liable to get outof order, and the screws being in practice almost necessarily of metal,are liable to become rusted or corroded, and the apparatus is unfittedfor use by parties not familiar with machinery nor habituated to thecare thereof.

My invention is totally distinct from this and avoids the defectsthereof and provides a simple and cheap apparatus for service in theordinary composing-room, and secures in practice great economy of timeand labor and diminishes for any given quantity of work the number ofchases required in a printing establishment.

What I claim as my invention is- The printers furniture hereinspecified, the same consisting of a frame adapted to set within thechase, the pieces of the frame be" ing united at the corners by loosejaws and tenons primed together, the holes in the tenons for the pinsbeing sufiiciently large for the furniture to be contracted when placedin the chase and expanded in blocking up the form, substantially asspecified.

ANDREW '1. THAYER.

\Vitnesses:

CHARLES A. llERBER'l, ALBERT (3. AUBERY.

